Sword Art Online: Phantom Bullet - White Dragon
by KhaosBlade
Summary: Basically a rewrite of the Phantom Bullet arc. Contains mainly SinonxOC. Enjoy!
1. Death Gun

**November 9th 2025**

**Gun Gale Online**

**SBC Glocken**

"These Players who think it's all about their Agility? Hah! Man they're a joke. Sure, firing speed and evasion are both crucial but at this point both of those are secondary to having the best equipment. And everyone knows the latest patch added some top tier weapons, provided you've got the Strength to use 'em" The voice rang throughout the in-game bar. A hologram showing the speaker, a top player known by the name XeXeed.

"Quite the statement, especially from one of the top players of Gun Gale Online!" A woman's voice chirped in, the host of the show XeXeed was appearing on.

The holographic monitor was playing the televised appearance of XeXeed to a group of players drinking at a bar Gun Gale itself. Not an irregular occurrence provided the guest of the show was relevant to Gun Gale, however XeXeed's comments had begun to provoke jeers and cursing from most of the patrons.

"Well honestly how could anyone expect exclusively boosting Agility expect to keep up with loot drops? If I were any of those players I'd quit now, or head over to the RMT Store and buy a Respec Kit!" XeXeed continued.

The other player on the show, Yamikaze, piped up. "So you expect players to put real money into changing their build just because you believe the newer weapons outclass the players individual skill? Naive, to say the least."

"Ooh, are we going to have a live confrontation between GGO's top two players right here on MMO Stream?" The hostess called, seamingly attempting to instigate the two into escalating into a more aggressive argument.

Neither player obliged with XeXeed continuing to boast about how Strength builds were the new 'top play' and how Agility was 'suboptimal at best'.

"Damn, that guy totally got us, saying how AGI was the best stat a few months back." One of the patrons muttered to another sitting beside him at the bar.

"How much are Respec Kits now? 10,000 yen was it?" Another asked.

"If you get 'em during a sale yeah."

As the bar erupted into conversations drowning out XeXeeds' speech a single cloaked player stood up, raising their pistol to the holographic image. "XeXeed! You fraud!" They yelled, the mask they wore distorted their voice, and the cloak covered their entire body masking any indication of gender.

A few of the patrons snickered and mocked the player, finding the outburst to be an amusing performance at least. Whilst a player, sitting at a booth on his own, far behind the other patrons opened his menu and selected his notepad window, he began to write down what the player was doing and saying finding the entire thing odd to say the least.

"You should be condemned for the lies you have broadcast! Prepare yourself to be judged by true power!" The cloaked player used their left hand to make the sign of the crucifix, and fired their gun, the round passing through the hologram and hitting a wall just behind it. The round exploded into red shards and a purple hexagon appeared next to the wall displaying the message IMMORTAL OBJECT.

Patrons all laughed as the player lowered his weapon. Whilst the player writing down everything about the event watched intently as if he was entranced, as if he was expecting something more. A few seconds went by and he gestured as if to close his notepad window until…

XeXeed started gasping and grasping at the left side of his chest as if he was having some sort of cardiac arrest. His avatar disappeared leaving only a sign which read DISCONNECTED in its place. The patrons of the bar looked at each other, confused. As the Hostess mentioned 'connection issues'.

"Ensure you imprint this moment into your minds, and remember the name I share with this weapon Death Gun! I shall be the judge of power, of strength!" The cloaked player began to wave his weapon around the bar pointing it indiscriminately at the players inside. Each time a player found the weapon pointing at themselves they couldn't help but let out a slight gasp or whimper out of fear.

'_Fear?'_ The player typing up the event thought to himself _'Impossible, this is all a game right? Plus if he did fire, it's a safe zone, nothing would happen.' _He shook his head and closed his notes, saving them to his PC's memory. He moved to leave before looking back at Death Gun. _'Although...it is awfully convenient'_ His mind wondered as he logged out of the game.

* * *

Yuuto removed the Amusphere from his head and sat up on his bed, he stretched his arms up above his head and walked across his apartment to sit in his computer chair. He nudged the mouse turning the monitor for his computer on revealing the GGO homepage.

He clicked the NEWS tab and skimmed through it, finding the patch notes for the latest GGO update. He studied them before opening up the notepad document he had typed up whilst in the bar. He considered posting it in the forums, for a moment. However he decided against it.

'_Probably nothing...but maybe…'_ He thought for a second, before sighing and opening an email tab. He clicked on the first (and only address he had saved) and began to compose an email:

Sis,

Thought you should know about this, after the whole SAO thing, I've been keeping tabs on anything weird I find on the net. I've been playing Gun Gale Online and I encountered...something. You told me to send anything weird to you so I noted it down, it's probably nothing.

Attached File:

Let me know if you need me to find anything else about this.

-Yu

He sent the email and recalled the events he had witnessed in the bar moments before. He shuddered as thoughts of another event like SAO entered his mind. He shook them out and walked back to the bed making note of the time: 23:42. He shrugged and lay down, silently thankful he had no commitments on a Sunday. Before long he was asleep with the events in the bar now irrelevant to him.

* * *

Yuuto awoke with a start as his phone fell from the table behind his bed and hit the floor with a dull _whump_. He groaned and reached down with his arm trying to reach the object without getting out of bed. The tips of his fingers grazed the object and he was able to pull it towards him just enough to grab it. As he lifted the object he checked the screen to see what had caused it to fall.

"Well, I assume she got my mail…" Yuuto murmured as he looked at the mail symbol on the screen. Assuming the vibration when it had been received had nudged the device off his table. With two taps of the screen the email opened:

It doesn't sound like anything important, you better not be cutting school to play games though!

I'll call in when I get home.

-Rina

Yuuto sighed and lay back on his bed. She was right, wasn't anything she needed to worry about, let alone something he should bother her when she was away with work over. Yuuto rolled back into bed grabbing his Amusphere as he lay back. "Well then, I suppose I have nothing to worry about." He smiled before diving back into the world of GGO.


	2. Cold-Hearted Sniper & The White Dragon

**5****th**** December 2025**

**Gun Gale Online**

**Solitary Sands Field**

"If they don't get here soon, we'll have to consider switching to night vision gear." Dyne commented checking his watch, the Solitary Sands area was, as the name implied an expansive desert with very few light sources at night.

Sinon nodded, her back rested against a group of rocks atop the mountain the six-member squad had set up at. An ideal location for an ambush, which was, as usual, the party's objective. Not exactly an honourable or noble objective as they primarily hunted weaker, PVE squadrons, but Sinon never complained, never questioned Dyne. After all, she had every intention of putting a round in-between his eyes at some point.

She rested her hand on the barrel of her rifle. A giant of a sniper rifle, the PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II, the 50. Cal rifle was used in the real world to destroy vehicles or to weaken building structures. But here, in GGO, it was Sinons' partner, her one true companion in any battle she faced. The weapon was currently deployed on its bipod in a gap between rocks, allowing Sinon to immediately take up a snipers' position should she need to.

One of the other squad members gave an audible groan. "Dyne, are we sure these guys are even comin'? Is your info reliable?" He spoke with a distinct tone of annoyance, probably since they had been waiting, by Sinons count, for around two hours longer than expected.

Dyne gave a grunt before responding. "The desert tends to have some decent mid-level mobs; hunting squads can get some decent loot to sell off here. This group takes the same route every time, which is why we're waiting here." He checked his own pocket watch. "Still, they must be having a busy day, which means more rewards for us, so quit complaining."

Sinon cast Dyne a sideways glare, _this_ was why she wasn't particularly fond of the man. Hunting PVE squads was the same, to her at least, as hunting insects. There was no real challenge in it. It was boring. '_I'll never get stronger doing this.'_ She thought to herself.

"Plus, it's a dead-set victory. We got the best shooter in GGO with us, right Sinocchi?" Another of the group added, his voice smug as he spoke. He then turned to Sinon. "Say, do you have time after this? We could grab a drink, I know some pretty good places we can check out for some new gear too. Whaddya say?"

The squad members eyes strayed a few inches south of Sinons' eyes. It almost made her shudder. She had to strain in order to find the members name. "Sorry…Ginrou-san, I have something to do in the real world after this…" She wasn't entirely lying, but it seemed a convenient way of declining his offer without being perceived as callous. Ginrou wasn't the first guy to ask her out in GGO, in fact he was one of a long list. Sinon never thought of herself as particularly 'cute' or 'attractive' in real life, in fact she thought she was quite the opposite. But in GGO, Sinon had much fairer features, natural beauty that could make most models jealous. Although this was the furthest from what she wanted.

Ginrou continued to leer at Sinon, he was either unaware that she knew _exactly_ where he was looking or simply didn't care. "…You a university student in the real world, got a report to hand in?" He asked.

Sinon buried her face into her muffler. "Something like that…" She responded. He wasn't too far off though, although she was a student she was still in high school. But like hell would anyone hear that from her mouth.

"They're here." The squad member they had designated as lookout pointed out. Arashi, if Sinon recalled, she only cared to remember his name and Dynes, Arashi was competent and Dyne had placed 18th in the latest Bullet of Bullets tournament. She was aware she may have to go up against both at some point and made a point to memorise their names. "Hey, uh, boss? How many were we waiting for? Six, right?" He asked turning to face Dyne.

"Six, yeah." Dyne responded popping his head over the rocks to observe their prey himself. He brought his binoculars up to his eyes to get a better look. "Eight? Two more than last time. Shouldn't be too much trouble." He looked over the party they had been waiting for. "Four in front, all carrying optical rifles. Four in back, one carrying another optical. Two big guys, probably carrying their gear and loot, try to ignore them if possible. And another one…Yeah, that's a Minimi." Dyne looked to Sinon as soon as he noticed the last targets weapon. "Sinon, he's your primary target."

Sinon lay down looking through her scope. She looked over the party and set her sights on the Minimi carrying target. Dyne was right, compared to optical weapons the live ammo Minimi was a problem but the other two were both wearing long cloaks obscuring any weapon they were carrying, their huge frames gave away that they were Strength-Vitality types, meaning not only could they use most heavy weapons, but they could take a few shots to take down. Dyne was undoubtedly right the Minimi was certainly a problem here, but the cloaked players didn't sit right with Sinon.

"I want to take at least one of the cloaked targets." She told Dyne. He and the rest of the squad were readying their weapons and preparing to move in once Sinon had taken her shot.

"Why? They're not the main issue, if the optical-users close in when we get stuck dealing with the Minimi we're done." He shook his head. "Minimi, that's your target, after you deal with him, do whatever you want." Dyne and the squad proceeded down the mountain into the derelict city below them, the only place in the area that provided any real cover.

Sinon shrugged and dug out a small earpiece from her muffler. She placed it on her left ear and took aim at her target. A green circle pulsated in her view, the Bullet Circle. '_One shot, 1500 meters, that's like tossing paper into a waste basket'_ She slowly pulled the trigger. A loud bang rang out and the player carrying the Minimi was almost totally vaporised by the 50. Cal round tearing him apart.

Sinon heard Dyne order the team forwards as shooting began. She took aim at one of the two cloaked figures and fired. Her second target sidestepped the shot as if he knew where the shot was heading, which he did. The Bullet Prediction Line allowed him to see the path her shot would take, only her first shot was invisible. Any further shots would be pointless, at least until she re-positioned. Surveying her surroundings, she concluded that she had nowhere to re-position, she had made her shot the others would have to deal with the rest of the PVE squad.

"Dyne, Sinon. Target 1: Kill confirmed, Target 2: Negative." She radioed in over her earpiece.

"Roger! Move in close, take out the optical guns next!" He ordered.

Sinon kept watch over the battlefield from her position. The entire squad advanced, as per Dyne's orders. A clear attempt to rush and overwhelm the enemy. Sinon noticed the two cloaked players reaching up to grip their cloaks. They yanked their cloaks off revealing their weapons, Sinon gasped.

"Dyne! Miniguns!" She yelled warning over the radio. She watched Ginrou get turned into what was, essentially, swiss cheese by one of the two minigun wielders.

Dyne ordered a retreat as Sinon grabbed her rifle and ran as far from her previous position as she dared. _'I wanted this, someone strong. But two people like that? This is bad.'_ She thought to herself.

* * *

Ryuji stood on top of a collapsed building far above the battlefield, observing the two parties battle. He had assumed that the party who struck first would have the advantage, but he was proven wrong. The two Minigun users had turned the tide greatly. As it stood only three of the PVP party remained, of course he had assumed the sniper had retreated. The Miniguns would spool up and cut through any cover that the players had moved into, the derelict city usually provided enough cover, but it was growing sparse. Ryuji estimated that the team would last another 4-5 minutes.

His pure white armour reflected the sunlight as the battle raged on, he ducked into cover before he was seen by the combatants below, cursing the full body armour. A one-time event item his NT-RX Tiamat armour provided a boost to both Agility and Vitality, however as a trade-off it was permanently white, which was only helpful in the arctic fields, and it required, as Ryuji had described it, 'a disgustingly high Strength requirement' to even wear. In fact, the Strength requirement was so high that Ryuji's own was too low to use both the armour and a primary weapon, thus he had chosen to dual wield G18C machine pistols.

The stat boost was invaluable however, so he continued to use the armour if ever he took on a job, one of the few jobs players could take in GGO, Bounty Hunting. He had been hired to take down one specific combatant of the battle going on below. However, if need be, he'd wait until the battle below was over, for him a softer resistance was far preferable.

Another of the PK squad was sawn in half by one of the two minigunners. Leaving the total players in the fight at six. Two of the PK's and four of the hunters. Ryuji smirked beneath the helmet, its green 'eyes' enabling him to zoom in as if he was wearing binoculars. He planned to strike when the fight had died down to the point where the players were all focused on one target.

"Oh, how amusing." He mumbled to himself. From behind the two PK's a certain Blue-haired sniper had emerged sprinting towards cover. "Well then Sinon-san, lets see how you handle this…"

* * *

"They hired bodyguards!" Dyne yelled, his earlier gung-ho attitude completely gone, as far as Sinon was concerned the man was now even more loathsome as a quivering wreck. "We're screwed!"

"Bodyguards?" Sinon murmured."Bodyguards my ass, these guys are a straight up army by themselves."

"They're legends…" The only other surviving member of Sinons group, Arashi, responded. "Goliath and Behemoth, costs a ton to hire them, but they've never let a squad wipe."

Sinon dived down as the prediction lines form one of the miniguns shredded through the metallic wall she was hiding behind. "If you two push up, I can hit the two optical gunners. Then you'll be within grenade throwing range." She suggested.

Dyne shook his head. "No, we'll be killed, maybe we should just log out at least then we won't have to deal with a harsh penalty. Sure, we'll lose some of our equipment but not as much as if we get wiped! Hell, it's a game anyway it doesn't matter!" He looked genuinely terrified, despite saying it was a game.

Sinon stared at him for a second dumbfounded before she snapped. "Don't you dare take that attitude with me!" Sinon knew all too well what it was like to feel powerless, in the real-world Shino Asada was weak, cowardly and utterly powerless, but in GGO Sinon was the best sniper and she wasn't about to lose to two hired thugs. "You're right, this is a game! So man up, and die with some damned dignity!"

Sinons' yell had such conviction behind it, that Dyne and Arashi suddenly felt empowered. Arashi emptied a magazine from his M4 at the area the Optical gunners were firing from. Just as he was about to duck down, a volley of energy shots punched through his Defensive Barrier and drained his HP. Dyne had already begun to run towards the two gunners, with an almighty yell he took a plasma grenade form his belt and threw it, before his own hp was drained by the energy rounds.

The optical gunners shared a quick high-five before they noticed dynes grenade landing two feet away from them, the device detonated vaporising the two.

Sinon gave a sigh _'Nice guts'_ the only compliment she would ever give Dyne. _'If I'm gonna do this I need a vantage point.' _She looked up at the derelict skyscraper, the only building in the area. She waited for a moment, steeled herself and ran. All her Agility being used to make the 500-meter run from her current cover to the entrance to the skyscraper. A thick red prediction line enveloped her body. She dived prone and slid for a few feet before rolling to her feet and somersaulting over the second minigun volley. She barely made it into the tower. She began ascending using all her acrobatic abilities to speed up the process. As she ascended the tower several volleys of bullets smashed through windows, or punched through walls, sometimes they were far away sometimes they were closer it seemed her two remaining adversaries were firing at random.

As she reached the top of the tower, she fired a single shot at one of the guards. His gold targeting visor shattered, it seemed he had clocked her and had jerked his head out of the way at the last second. Sinon saw the immense volume of the prediction line now coming towards her, both miniguns now aimed at her. She took a gamble and leapt from the tower the miniguns firing as she did so. A sharp pain dug at her as her right leg was severed.

'_One, if I can kill one…'_ Sinon span helplessly as the gunners struggled to get an accurate shot on her. Sinon felt the spinning slow and aimed her rifle at the guard whose visor she had shattered. The two had been smiling the whole time, Sinon never allowed herself the luxury but this one time neither were smiling.

"The end!" Sinon pulled the trigger the round tearing through one of the minigunners bodies. As he exploded Sinon closed her eyes and waited for the volley that would finish her off. It never came, instead an almost cheerful male voice spoke.

"Hello there, Goliath-san." Whoever spoke was clearly taking joy in this. A burst of machine pistol fire rang out and the distinct sound of a players' avatar shattering into red shards was heard. "And now for you Sinon-san."

Sinon opened her eyes, the white armour almost blinding her as she did. The red G18C was identical to the one she kept holstered in every way but the colour. She knew the owner. An infamous Bounty Hunter that was only known by a nickname. "White…Dragon…" She whispered, the pain of losing her leg getting to her now. It would regrow in a matter of minutes but even so, the pain wasn't easy to ignore.

The White Dragon holstered his pistol. "Killing you now wouldn't be worth it, besides, Goliath was my target this time." He turned and walked away. Leaving Sinon to lay in the sand until finally logged out.

* * *

Shino Asada awoke in her bed, she made a vague gun shape with her hand before lowering it. _'Not yet, I'm not strong enough yet.'_ A thought that crossed her mind all too frequently. She thought to the two minigunners she had faced moments before, how they smiled on the field and how the White Dragon sounded joyful as he executed his target. Shino curled up into a ball and allowed a few tears to leak from her eyes. _'I have to…I can't go on like this.'_ The only thing she was thankful for in this moment was the pitch blackness of her room. At least she could pretend she wasn't crying.

* * *

**Authors note: Christ what a long chapter. What up its your boy Author-san here. Thought I'd add one of these to the end of chapter 2 for a bit of a laugh and it might give me some time to address some questions I've had.**

**Firstly, whilst I plan on rewriting all of Phantom Bullet, I'm not just gonna rip the thing wholesale and add my own OC in. No thanks, that'd suck. Problem is, the beginning of PB is kind of important. But we only have one more introductory chapter, then I'll start diverging. Although most of the diverging will be with Shino in the real world. But I'll try my best to throw some curveballs in GGO too.**

**Secondly, why is that I spell armour with a 'u'? Simple I'm a British man. It's how I've always spelt it and that's not gonna change.**

**Anyway, that's all I got for this one, hopefully you enjoy Chapter 2 as much as the first. It is currently 5:00 AM and I've been at this since 8:32 PM so I'm pretty much dead at this point.**

**Oh, one last thing you want to know what Ryuji's armour looks like? It's basically Narrative Gundam.**

**Anyway as said before I'm out.**


	3. Her True Self

**December 6****th ****2025**

**Tokyo School District**

Shino Asada took a few steps outside the school gates, taking a deep breath as she did so. She buried her face in her white muffler as she began to walk down the street. Trying to calculate how many more days she had to keep to the same routine as she did so. Shino had never intended to go to high school. Instead she desired to go to straight into the workforce, but her grandparents had forced her to go, stating that if she didn't go to high school, she would never be able to support herself or marry into a good family. _'Marriage? Like I care about that' _if only she could've brought herself to actually say that at the time.

Shino bought a few items from a convenience store. Mostly carbonated drink cans and a few easy to cook meals. She had never really been one for extravagant meals or eating out. Not that she couldn't afford it, she just didn't have the confidence to eat out by herself or the skills needed to cook anything particularly complicated. It never bothered her though, he didn't have any friends she would eat with anyway. Well, there was one.

As Shino left the store, she heard a girl's voice call out to her from an alley way to the right.

"Asada-san!" The voice was all too familiar to Shino, and yet it still caused her to flinch reflexively.

Shino found herself following the voice into the alleyway, the sooner she dealt with this the better. As she stepped int the dark alley, she saw three girls wearing a uniform identical to hers. One of them rapidly tapping buttons on her cell phone. She looked up at Shino and gave a slight smirk that make Shino take a step back, the moment she did the other two girls moved behind her and gave her a shove forward.

"E-Endou-san…" Shino whispered, her soft voice shaking. This was not the first encounter with this group she'd had, and it was a fair bet to say this wouldn't be the last.

Endou put her phone into her pocket and stared down at Shino, the few inches between them felt gargantuan to Shino. Endou's eyes shot an intimidating gaze, the copious amounts of mascara she wore only seemed to accentuate the effect of her clear intimidation.

"Asada-san, we spent way too much singing Karaoke today, do us a solid and lend us some money for the train home?" Endou asked, the two girls behind Shino laughed as Endou held up one finger. "Ten thousand should cover it."

'_Ten thousand Yen? Like hell I'm giving her that kind of money!'_ Shino's inner thoughts simply wouldn't leave her mouth. "I-I don't have that kind of money on me." She wavered slightly, Endou's intimidation made her want to run, but the alley had only the two entrances, both blocked.

"Ugh, then go withdraw it then." Endou growled.

Shino shook her head. "I-I won't be doing that." She thought back to how her conviction as Sinon had forced Dyne into action. "I'm sorry Endou, but I won't be lending you any money." She shot Endou a defiant gaze. "Now step aside, I believe we are done here."

"You bitch! Don't you dare look down on me, scum like you should be lucky to get such attention from people like us!" Endou yelled, her patience gone. A wicked smirk returned to her face as he manipulated her hand into the vague shape of a handgun.

She pointed the finger gun at Shino. Shino's face drained of all colour turning a pale white. She let out a piercing scream, her heartbeat rang in her ears as she dropped to her knees, her stomach churning and convulsing. Shino put a hand up to her mouth trying desperately to not vomit, the foul liquid seeping through her fingers.

"Hey, you know my brother has some cool models, you think I should bring some next time. You know some of his _pistols_?" Endou put special emphasis on the last word, knowing it would have some effect on Shino.

Endou laughed and moved to snatch Shino's school bag. "Oi, oi, Endou. I think that's far enough." A new voice called.

Shino felt weak, her eyes heavy her heartbeat still pounding. As she turned to see a boy wearing her schools uniform standing behind Endou. His dark hair was scruffy and his eyes piercing. He was certainly intimidating.

Endou turned around and began to walk away. "Tch, we were done anyway." Her voice turned form it's distinct bitter tone to a more feminine-cutesy tone "See you at school Asada-san!"

The boy leaned against the wall of the convenience store and let out a sigh. He reached into the pocket of his winter coat and took out a glasses case. They had a thick grey frame, far thicker than Shino's own. His lenses were square shaped to fit into the frame and seemed, at least from where Shino was kneeling, relatively thick. He put on the glasses and used his hand to brush his hair forward, so it hung just above his eyes.

Shino used a cloth she carried in her bag to wipe her hand clean, luckily, she hadn't vomited to the extend where it had splashed onto her own face, however she could certainly use some mouthwash. She recognised the boy who had come to her aid, she couldn't name him, but she had seen him around her school library.

"Thank you." She said giving a bow she picked up her bag. "Sorry, um, I'm not sure we've met." She felt she should at least try and thank him.

He smiled at her, he seemed far less intimidating now. "Ah, maybe not, but I've heard your name Asada Shino-san." Most people used her name with some form of bitterness, but this person used her name without seeming particularly bothered by it. In fact, Shino could hear a slight hint of happiness in his voice.

"Tachibana…Yuuto…" Shino recalled seeing him a few times, she didn't know where exactly she knew his name from. Shino had never seen him talking to anyone, at least none of their fellow students. "You didn't need too do that." She could feel the taste of vomit still ripe in her mouth.

Yuuto tossed her a bottle of water from his pocket. "It's better than nothing right?"

Shino immediately took a swig of the water using it to rinse her mouth out, she did this a few times before taking out a bag of pocket tissues with which to wipe her hand clean.

"Huh, cool." Yuuto commented as he watched her. "You don't seem phased at all." His voice was no were near as deep as it was when he had approached Endou. In fact, as far as Shino could tell, it was almost as high pitched as her own.

"This isn't the first time." Shino explained, burying her face in her white scarf. She didn't particularly want to spend anymore time explaining herself. _'Why should I? He's probably gonna find out, that is if he doesn't know already' _this thought continued through her mind. Everybody found out eventually. She had one friend in this world, that was enough. Yuuto wouldn't stick around after he found out her secret, so it was better to be rid of him sooner before she felt any sort of emotion toward him.

"So, you're Asada Shino, I always figured you'd be, I dunno, more violent?" Yuuto murmured. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

A shiver shot up Shino's spine. "W-Why would that be?" She stammered, knowing the answer, it was obvious.

"Let's not discuss it, all you need to know is that I know enough about you to know why you reacted the way you did." Yuuto had stopped smiling at this point. His dark brown hair hung just above his glasses. Shino could see that without the lenses his eyes would be piercing enough to be intimidating on their own. "But I think it's best to form your own opinions about someone. I-If you'll allow it that is?"

Shino had found him slightly irritating at first, but with the way his hands were fidgeting in the pockets of his brown winter coat was _'kind of endearing'_ at least according to her.

"Sure." She gave him a smile, not dissimilar to the one he gave her. She found this to be surprising even to herself. After the two had exchanged numbers and mail addresses they parted ways. Yuuto still seemed to have a nervous fidget, a far cry from the intimidating figure she first saw him as. Shino continued her walk home, _'Am I happier for having met him?'_ she wondered to herself.

It wasn't as if she was totally alone, Shinkawa Kyouji, she had met him in the library a few months ago. He had introduced her to Gun Gale online after discovering her reading a magazine on firearms. Shino was apprehensive at first, it took all her effort to even read or look at the images of firearms in the magazine even then she couldn't bring herself to look or read up on handguns. But after a few days she was convinced to buy a pre-owned old-model Amusphere and a copy of Gun Gale. It was her escape her way of coping of an event in her past.

As Shino entered her small one room apartment, she removed her uniform, stripping down to only her button up shirt and underwear. She moved over to her chest of drawers and opened the second one down, inside it contained a first aid kit, some sewing thread and a replica optical handgun from GGO.

Shino lifted the replica with both hands, her heartbeat racing. She strained all her effort into holding it, but it was no use, she dropped it with a scream as her mind flooded with memories she could only describe as 'horrifying'. After dropping the replica, she ran into her bathroom, her stomach churned and twisted as it emptied itself, unlike before though Shino had the convenience of a toilet to vomit into.

Shino felt exhausted from the vomiting and the mental exertion. Her mind still flooded with the memories of five years prior. A small post office, a man yelling, her mothers' cries, and three gunshots. Shino remembered it all too well, it was the man who carried the gun, but the 11-year-old Shino who had fired it, she who had killed him that day. Shino truly believed she deserved every bad thing that happened since. The last thing she remembered of that day was her blood-stained clothes and her mother's terrified face.

Shino placed her hands on the seat of the toilet and used it as leverage to stand. She flushed away the results of her stomach emptying itself and swished around mouthwash. She grabbed a cloth from her dresser as she walked out and laid it atop the model gun, she had dropped moments earlier. She gripped the cloth covered model and laid it back in the drawer, she removed the cloth and slammed it shut almost in one motion. She glanced at herself in the mirror and could see the streaks down her face where tears had washed away the light make-up she wore. She laid herself on her bed and gripped the sheets close to her chest as se curled up. "Someone…Anyone…Save me…" She whispered as she continued to cry.

* * *

"Sis" Yuuto didn't particularly like the look his older sister was giving him.

She stepped forwards and stubbed out the cigarette she had been smoking before handing him a file. "Not my decision but the bosses want you to investigate that thing you saw." She had a serious aggressive tone.

7 years difference between them and his sister had made a career in the VR division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. She had called it 'a perk of being one of the few unemployed adult SAO Survivors'. Since then she had made sure that her younger brother was careful in the virtual world, she had spent 2 years trapped in one, she'd be damned if her brother had to experience what she had.

"Why me? Why not you?" Yuuto asked. "I'm not the one who works for them, perhaps you should let them know that Rina-nee." He walked past her still holding the file, he slid a key-card into the lock beside his apartment door. "I'll take a look." He told her before closing the door behind him. He heard his sisters' heels clack as she walked away.

Yuuto opened the file and read the case title: Death Gun. He kissed his teeth as he skimmed through it, two deaths related and his transcript of the first murder was being used as key evidence. He had thought of it as nothing but now people were dying. He closed his eyes and remembered spending days alone waiting for a phone call from the hospital telling him Rina had died. He understood why she didn't seem happy earlier, she didn't want him to go in, but her bosses had ordered it. _'God knows why'_ he thought as he read the details. He was to make contact with a new player, their name Kirito. The job started on the 8th.

The information was limited, inside was written that he would be paid three million yen upon completion, but there were no clues on the method of murder, how exactly Death Gun was carrying out the killings. It simply wasn't possible for a gun in GGO to kill a player in the real world, Yuuto knew that. He figured there had to be something more, his curiosity getting the better of him.

He placed the file on his computer desk and sat on his bed, a smirk on his face _'If they're paying me that much, I suppose I could keep an eye out for this Kirito.'_

"Well shit." He said aloud as he realised his mind was made up, he would be investigating Death Gun.

**Authors note: Finally, I have begun to diverge from the source material, and hopefully my writing will improve to some degree as I now have an editor. In return I must edit his work if ever he gets around to it, I'll let you guys know when he uploads his stuff, its actually really good from what I've read. **

**Editor's Note: It is not a mere fanfiction plebeian, it is a true masterpiece, my Magnum Opus.**


	4. Investigation Starting

**December 8****th****, 2025**

**Yuuto's apartment**

**Tokyo Residential District**

Yuuto had read the file through multiple times, twice in the morning and three times since he had returned from school. The file instructed him that as of the 9th, he was not to attend school under the pretence that he had a 'family emergency' of some sort. He assumed his sister had made the call.

As Yuuto began to read the file once more he made note that Death Gun had claimed two victims, XeXeed and a player who went by Ushihiro Tarako. Both had died of heart failure. Yuuto had spent most of the school day formulating theories. It wasn't like the NerveGear, the autopsies had revealed no brain damage of any sort. And the pain inhibitors in GGO were sufficient to prevent real world damage. And, considering the murder Yuuto himself had witnessed was performed whilst the victim was logged out of GGO, appearing in MMO Stream, it wasn't the gun. '_There's something I'm missing' _his mind went through every possible theory of how Death Gun was performing murders in-game. His conclusion: It wasn't being done in-game.

Yuuto started to pace back and forth in his small one room apartment. Barely having enough room to take ten steps before having to turn. "How, how, how?" He repeatedly asked himself aloud. He glanced over at his Amusphere, realising why he had been hired for the job. "Death Gun has the answers, I'll have'ta ask him." He muttered to himself.

A buzz from his phone caught his attention. Grabbing it before sitting in his computer chair and reclining in it, he looked over the mail he had received.

Tachibana Yuuto-san,

Hello, my name is Nakamura Miyami.

I will be monitoring everything during this operation remotely from the VR Division offices, the company running GGO's Japanese servers have given me access to what your character sees and hears. Unfortunately, I must ask that you inform me before logging in so I can monitor any interactions in game.

Also, my boss told me to tell you that Kirito will not be involved until the 13th. However, we expect you to begin your investigation tonight.

Good luck.

Yuuto gave a shrug and sent back a simple 'Okay' and setting the phone down again, it had just turned 5:16 PM. He figured he'd have some time to kill before beginning any sort of work. His phone buzzed again. His eyebrows raised as he noticed that it was a standard SMS Text message from a certain Shino Asada. Opening the messaging App, he saw her full message.

Are you okay? I noticed you seemed…absent at school today.

Yuuto hadn't noticed Shino throughout the school day, but she evidently noticed him.

He thought for a moment before responding.

Not really, can I ask you something?

Shino's reply was almost immediate: Of course.

Yuuto gave the file one more glance, he debated whether to tell her everything. He decided against sit simply asking her: Ever played Gun Gale?

Shino's reply took several minutes to come through: I log in occasionally.

Yuuto decided there and then: Tomorrow meet me at the old café nearest the school at 16:00. He hoped she wouldn't think he was up to anything unsavoury; they hadn't known each other long but he was at least going to make sure as few people as possible became victims of Death Gun.

Alright, I assume this about the game, right? I have a friend who plays too, should I bring him?

Yuuto felt his heart sink slightly. _'A boyfriend, of course.' _He couldn't help but feel disappointed but at the very least he would be able to ensure that two people were safe.

Yeah, bring him too. Trust me this is important.

He hit the sleep button on his device before tossing it onto the cabinet behind his bed. He lay down on the bed and reached underneath, after a brief rummage he pulled out his Amusphere. He reached over his head to the cabinet his phone lay on and gripped a thin cable. Plugging it into the Amusphere and ensuring the orange charging light came on he placed the device on his head and lay flat.

* * *

Yuuto arrived in the SBC Glocken, he opened his menu and hit the External messaging tab. He selected the E-mail from Miyami and hit reply.

Nakamura-san

Logged in, proceeding with investigation.

Tachibana

He hit send. The message was curt and short, but he felt it would be preferable to keep his contact with Miyami as minimal as possible. Primarily because he didn't want to be called on for any further jobs.

He felt slightly on-edge as he stretched his arms above his head. He'd ruled out the possibility of Death Gun actually being able to do anything in game, but there was still a lot he didn't know _'too much I don't know'_.

As he began to walk through the city, he caught the occasional glimpse of his grey-haired character in reflections. In GGO he was about the same build as outside, his hair was the same length and he had the same piercing eyes. However, in the game, unlike in the real world, the eyes suited him, he didn't feel the need to hide them behind his hair.

He continued walking, not particularly looking for anything. He casually put his hands into the pockets of his black combat jacket. He was stopped in his tracks by a female voice calling his character name.

"Ryuji-san!" A short girl with short blue hair was running towards him. She had a green combat vest over a red dress, her combat boots covered half of her black thigh high socks, the hem of her dress hovered a little above where the socks ended. The outfit was designed to put special emphasis on her curves and (without the combat vest) her cleavage, the outfit also drew Ryuji's eyes to the exposed skin between her socks and the dress, the Absolute Territory.

She finally reached Ryuji, the top of her head halfway up his chest. "Man, you're a hard guy to find." She said, her voice was what Ryuji would describe as 'annoyingly cutesy'.

"Sorry, I'm busy." He spun on his heels to walk away from the child-like avatar. The only hint she was an adult being her generous breasts.

The girl jumped in front of him. "Sorry, Ryuji-san but I kinda need to talk to you."

"I have no interest in talking to you, later perhaps. Another day even, but not now." His voice was starting to show how irritating this was becoming to him.

"Ryuji-san, how cold of you. An adorable girl wants to talk to you and you just blow her off. Man, maybe I should try calling you Virgin-kun if you treat all girls like this." She sounded legitimately disheartened.

"Virgin-kun?!" This stung him particularly, she wasn't wrong but still, she didn't need to be so direct. "Look here, what does my attitude towards you have to do with my success with the ladies?!" He yelled at her finally letting how annoying she was being get the better of him.

"That got your attention, huh? Virgin-kun." She smirked. "Anyway, I'm Mina, cutest player in GGO!" She declared putting her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest.

"Man, you're shallow." Ryuji was about done with Mina. He wanted no further interaction with her. He opened his menu concluding that he wasn't going to get any closer to Death Gun with Mina around.

She noticed him opening his menu, and just as he was about to confirm his log out, with a smirk she said something she knew would stop him: "Would you prefer me to call you Tachibana-kun...?"

**Authors Note: Good Jesus this one was hard to write, I'm aware some of you are waiting for Kirito to get there, don't worry he's coming. Probably chapter 6. Big ups to my Editor who has really been a huge help for this so far, I might have to pay him at this rate.**

**Editors Note: Nah.**


	5. Supporter

**December 8****th****, 2025**

**SBC Glocken Bar**

**Gun Gale Online**

Ryuji slammed his drink down onto the table after downing a significant portion of the orange liquid. The blue haired girl who was sat across from him was simply stirring her cyan coloured drink with the straw it came with.

"Hey, Virgin-kun. No need to look so angry, I'm not gonna tell anyone." She told him. Her voice was becoming seriously grating to Ryuji at this point.

"Not only do you know who I am offline, but you also claim to be my supervisor? I'm having a tough time believing that." He replied. He had dropped any semblance of tolerance and was displaying a distinct tone of annoyance towards the much shorter avatar.

Mina sat up slightly in her seat. "I introduced myself over mail, remember earlier today? Yeah that was me."

Ryuji gestured a hand towards her. "Prove it." He said.

Mina shrugged and with a series of gestures produced an image of an ID card with an image of a woman looking almost identical to Mina but with brown hair and a name: Nakamura Miyami. The woman who had e-mailed Yuuto earlier that night. The serial barcode below the image provided evidence that it was indeed hers, and not simply a falsified image.

Ryuji relaxed slightly, silently being thankful that the bar was virtually empty except for a few patrons who were too engrossed in their own conversations to pay them any mind.

"Fine, why meet me here? Like in-game?" He asked, his voice taking on a slightly politer tone.

Mina smiled slightly. "Honestly? Rina-chan asked me to keep an eye on you, in-game and I kind f owe her one so…here I am!" She lowered her tone and started intertwining her fingers under the table. "Besides I wanted to help."

Ryuji cocked his head. "Help? Why? How?" He asked. "This doesn't seem the sort of game you'd be into, besides you don't look useful at all." He folded his arms.

Mina slammed her fist down onto the table. "I'll have you know I'm an expert armourer in this world!" She was yelling loud enough to draw the attention of some of the other patrons. She clearly noticed and assumed a calm demeanour immediately. "Also, I use this game to meet guys…occasionally."

Ryuji rubbed the back of his head. _'I'll say it again shallow.'_ This wasn't a particularly uncommon thing for female players to do in GGO, find a tough guy and try to hook up with him in the real world. He had never been approached in this way and thus wasn't sure what the success rate was of these encounters, but it wasn't that important to him anyway.

He raised an eyebrow. "Expert Armourer? How high is your skill?" He leaned in closer to Mina.

"Maxed out." She replied.

Ryuji smiled and looked both ways before opening his inventory and showing her the NT-RX Tiamat he used in combat. "You can modify this right?" He sounded excited.

Mina smiled. "Oh yeah, you bet I can." She looked over the item. "The materials could be tough to come by though and it only has two bonus effects to unlock. You sure you want me to do this?"

Ryuji nodded. He had never invested enough time into grinding his Armourer skill to upgrade the armour, and he didn't trust anyone else to modify it. But Miyami? Perhaps she would understand that selling the armour would be detrimental to their shared goal of eliminating Death Gun.

"It'll take some time. I can get the materials, but it takes time to actually upgrade the gear, and then there's the wait times…" Mina advised him. "Don't worry I know how much of an asset this gear actually is."

Ryuji gave a nod again. "It only has to be in your inventory for the wait time after you initiate the timer. You can log out in the meantime." He told her, he'd never experienced this first hand, but a certain whiskered info broker had told him about this feature of the upgrade system.

A flew flicks of his fingers and Mina received the armour, she inspected the equipment requirements and her eyes widened slightly. "These requirements, woah." She whispered.

Ryuji heard her whispering. "Disgustingly high, aren't they?" He stood up from the booth and locked eyes with Mina putting on his most intimidating look and voice before telling her "Sell that gear and I'll know who to shoot."

Mina laughed and waved him away. "Sure, you will Virgin-kun. Anyway, weren't you gonna investigate Death Gun?"

Ryuji smirked and pointed to a holographic screen. "The victims were high ranking players, I just found a place he'll definitely show up." The screen showed and advertisement for the gathering for the best players in GGO, The Bullet of Bullets tournament. "This Saturday huh? Looks like I can give Kirito a lead."

Mina finished her drink and stood up herself. "Hmm, not a bad place to look."

Ryuji thought back to the plans he had for the next day, he looked down at Mina. "Hey, you know I was thinking, maybe I should let some people know about Death Gu- "

"Sure, but you don't get to tell them the nature of your job." Mina's response was immediate and curt. "You've already found a lead though, so I'm happy to report that you've earned a day off. Perhaps you should use that day to warn any friends you have. Minor details only though." She sounded surprisingly professional.

Ryuji nodded in acknowledgement. He had already decided that Shino didn't need the in-depth details. Only to be warned to avoid GGO. "Mina-san?"

"Hm?" She looked up at him. Ryuji couldn't help but wonder if she wasn't taller in real life.

"You know this isn't being done in-game, right? It's not possible." His face took on a grim look, he still didn't know how it was being done but there was simply no way it was within GGO.

Mina nodded. "Yes, we've looked into it; You have a theory?"

Ryuji shook his head in response. "Not exactly, but I think it might help to check the apartments of the victims for any similarities, locks, security cameras. Anything."

Mina smiled at him. "Well done Virgin-kun, we might make an investigator out of you yet." She opened her menu and motioned to log out. "I think we can call it a day, you're gonna take part in the BoB tournament, I'll mod your armour and get you a report of the apartments." She logged out.

Ryuji took a few minutes to himself, he thought about how he was going to explain things to Shino and her friend. _'Man, this is gonna be a tough conversation.'_

**Authors note: We're getting to the BoB, but next chapter you might get to see my writing really get stretched, like to its breaking point. Big ups to my editor for putting up with my general lateness with this chapter. He's a swell guy.**


	6. Aftermath

**December 9****th****, 2025**

**SBC Glocken**

**GGO**

Sinon let out a small grunt as her fist hit the solid metal wall she was leaning against. Her face a crimson red. She had first been surprised to find out that Yuuto lived in a complex so close to her own, but then upon her asking him why he decided to tell her of all people about Death Gun he had simply kissed her. Sinon slammed her palm against the wall as she relived the moment, normally she would have pushed him away, but reasons she couldn't comprehend she had leaned into it.

"Sinon-san?" A familiar voice called to her. Sinon glanced back at the taller male avatar, his grey hair rivalled hers in length, his features were close to hers in femininity along with his voice. Her only indicator that this was indeed a male avatar was the fact that the player was the only friend she had and the other person who had met Yuuto earlier that day, Kouji Shinkawa.

"Spiegel," she replied pulling up her muffler to hide her blush. "You just had to leave early, didn't you?" Her eyes pierced into Spiegel indicting a genuine annoyance.

Spiegel immediately rushed closer to her gripping her shoulders. "Did he do anything, did he hurt you?!" His voice was frantic, almost deranged.

Sinon raised her hands defensively and shook her head. "No, well- No he didn't just- Ugh, you made things awkward." She understood how protective Spiegel's player was over her, telling him what had happened probably would cause her more trouble than she'd like. Besides that, Yuuto had told her quite a lot about himself, his compulsive nature, the effect the SAO incident had had on his relationship with his sister, all kinds of things she felt he wouldn't tell anyone else. Spiegel would be better off not knowing.

he gave her friend a slightly forced smile. "Ready to do some major grinding?" She asked using her left leg to push off the wall with Spiegel matching her brisk walking pace.

"Really After all that Death Gun talk?" His voice was slightly shaky at the mention of Death Gun, the notion of dying in a game was terrifying to him, as it would be to most people. But Sinon was completely unfazed, in fact, she seemed to enjoy the added tension of it.

Sinon simply walked into the transporter and sent Spiegel a party invite, which he accepted immediately. She scrolled through the locations and selected a dense woodland area: The Forgotten Woods.

Sinon gave a sinister smirk as she equipped her Hecate II and Glock 18C sidearm. Spiegel gave a sigh as he equipped his MP7 submachine gun and the two were dropped into the area. The faint sounds of gunfire could be heard in the distance. Sinon immediately slung her Hecate over her shoulder and drew her sidearm placing an earpiece over her right ear.

Spiegel followed her lead by equipping his own headset. The two separated with Sinon heading towards a small hilltop with just enough cover to keep her mostly hidden whilst Spiegel, ever the decoy, headed towards the gunfire.

Spiegel slowly advanced through the jungle equipping a woodland camouflage hood as he began his advance, hopefully the hood would prevent his distinct white hair from revealing his position too early.

He dashed between the trees, his high Agility allowing him to move faster than he could ever dream of moving in real life. He could hear the gunshots getting closer as the forest edge came into view, a crackle came over his headset shortly followed by Sinons' voice "Spiegel hold position in 100 metres, I'll take my shot and reposition into the forest, whilst I reposition you push forwards whilst firing. I count three of them so, provided I down one, you should be able to down a second whilst they try and figure out where I am."

Sinon lined up her shot with one of the three enemy players, they were engaged in a fight with an area boss, a large mechanical spider, Sinon was hoping that herself and Spiegel would be able to kill not only the players but the boss too. She could be satisfied with that much experience gained, perhaps she could level up more than once. 'If I can out level him, Death Gun doesn't stand a chance.' That was her plan. Yuuto had warned both her and Shinkawa that Death Gun would potentially be partaking in the Bullet of Bullets tournament, but Shino had refused his suggestion to avoid taking part, or even logging into GGO. 'He doesn't get it, I need this.' She lined up her shot as she saw the cursor indicating Spiegels' position stop, exactly where she told him to. She took a deep breath to steady her aim before slowly exhaling the moment her lungs emptied and her aim was at its steadiest, she began to squeeze the trigger, however before she could fire a loud bang rang out from behind her.

She spun round as an avatar faded into view. He was holding an M14 EBR fitted with a long scope. His equipment was woodland camouflage and looked, at least to Shino, relatively basic.

Sinon struggled as a series of gunshots from the players rang out. She saw Spiegels health bar empty. _'That idiot, can't he tell the difference between a seven point six two and a fifty?'_ She still wasn't sure how what she referred to as a 'GGO Boomer' could be so incompetent.

"Looks like your pal didn't fair too well on his own." The player who hovered over Sinon murmured. His voice was familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it.

Sinon settled down. "If you're gonna kill me, just be quick about it." She cursed herself for not checking the area she'd set up at beforehand. Adaptive Camouflage, the effect that caused him to fade into her view, it wasn't quite invisibility more of his armour adapting to the environment round him, where he was before the woodland camo would've kept him concealed amongst the dense foliage on the floor, however the contrast between himself and the sky above the two made him perfectly visible.

"If I was planning on offing you, I would've done it by now. Nah, I'm here for a drop that the boss here tends to give." He loosened his grip slightly on Sinon, she immediately threw him off reversing the pin with herself on top and reaching for her sidearm once more, as she did so she felt a cold metal pressing against the exposed side of her abdomen.

Sinon immediately knew that this player was holding a handgun against her, _'A knife in the left and a gun in the right, not bad.'_ She cursed herself complimenting her attacker. She knew that the moment she gripped her own weapon she would be shot; at this range the damage would be significant, and it was debatable whether she could even fire a shot herself before her health hit zero.

"Well then, I see we're at an impasse, you want the boss drop and I want the Exp. I'd advise we resolve this quick before those guys figure out where your shot was from." Sinon spoke with a hint of arrogance, she knew that this player would serve as acceptable bait, or at least a competent replacement for Spiegel. She merely needed to convince him to do it.

"You're asking for a truce, fine by me, as long as I get that drop, I really don't care." He removed the pistol from Sinons' abdomen and holstered it, he retrieved the rifle he had dropped when he had pinned Sinon and heard a series of noises from the treeline around three hundred metres away. "Not exactly stealthy guys." A loud explosion went off and the woodland clad player chuckled. "Ah, I love claymores." He opened his menu and sent Sinon a party request.

She promptly accepted. "Ryuji…huh?" _'Ryu as in Dragon?'_ She stopped questioning his name as she realised hers was a result of an interest she held in Greek mythology.

"Sinon, the azure sniper. Lucky me." His combat helmet covered almost all his face, except the eyes, that were visible through the ballistic lenses that Sinon was all too familiar with, a few strands of white hair were visible along with his emerald eyes. He must've noticed her investigating him, as his words hinted. "Like something you see?"

Sinon moved back to her prior sniping position, the area boss was at around half the last of six health bars. She sighed, it was heavily armoured and all too easy to hit. "You have any Explosive rounds for that rifle? If so, don't be stingy, hit the joints should be able to- "

"-damage the servos and hydraulics, keep it in place. If its still for long enough I could plant an explosive under it. Between the two of us the Exp yield should be around a hundred thousand each." He finished her thought before pulling out a small single shot tube style grenade launcher and loading a 'High Explosive' (H-Ex) grenade into it.

'_Ah, the noob tube, a suitable compensator for tragically small manhood.' _Sinon internally mocked her new ally. She switched her standard magazine for one she had marked with orange tape, indicating it contained explosive rounds, eight of them to be exact, she lay down aiming down to scope, before she knew it Ryuji was already running, at an impressive pace directly at the boss, his SIG Sauer P226 Pistol in one hand and his M230 handheld grenade launcher in his other hand.

She had half a mind to shoot him there and then, but she thought it preferable to see how he fought in a situation that he hadn't prepared for. Honestly it was probably blind luck that she hadn't set his claymores off herself. Otherwise he manually detonated them. If he was to participate in the BoB then she would need to be careful.

Ryuji closed in on the boss and with a solid thump sound the grenade launcher was fired, one of the boss eight legs began to crackle and spark, an energy cannon charged a shot and fired at him in retaliation but Ryuji's Agility skill made it nearly impossible for such a slow firing weapon to target him. He loaded a second shot into the break action launcher as Sinon began to target the joints on the legs as best she could herself. The two 'arms' the arachnid had flailed as two more legs were hit and began to crackle and spark as the first had, a clear indictor the servos were damaged. As Ryuji targeted a fourth, the boss slumped to one side the central, spider like body finally being low enough to climb onto. Ryuji pounced onto the 30-foot-tall mechanical creature and found its single blue glowing eye; he grasped his as best he could and used all his strength to yank the object out. The beast let out a robotic screech as Ryuji claimed his prize, an orb barely small enough for him to carry in both hands. He spun round to walk away, he clearly gestured Sinon to fire at where the eye had been. She took aim and in the space the eye should have been was a small cuboid explosive charge. A shot rang out throughout the forest, followed by a huge explosion. Ryuji's health certainly dropped by a quarter. And Sinon ran down to where the boss had once been. She found Ryuji slumped against a tree, his light combat armour singed and blackened by the explosion.

"Man, that sucked. Really need to remember that without my usual gear those charges pack a real punch." He mumbled as Sinon helped him to his feet. "Well at least we both levelled, and I got my drop."

Sinon nodded, noting the number next to her name had gone from 207 to 209. And Ryuji's had jumped from 236 to 237. She found it odd he would use any other gear than his 'usual' but she thought it better than to question him about it. Besides, it was getting late and she was starting to feel slightly tired.

"Well, well I figured I'd find you out here." A short blue haired female appeared as if from nowhere.

"Mina-san." Ryuji growled; his annoyance apparent. "You sent me out here. I got the item by the way." He made a series of gestures, sending the item to the short female.

Sinon assumed that the two knew each other outside the game, she thought for a moment to ask, however she had no intention of making the brief partnership with Ryuji any sort of regularity, besides there was a sort of unspoken rule that the real world was not to be discussed outside the game.

"Your equipment won't be ready in time for the event ya' know?" Mina spoke with a slightly disappointed tone. "The timer is around 3 days and I still have to find some of the other parts to fully modify it."

Ryuji sighed, "I guess I'll just have to make do. As long as it's ready for the final." He removed his tactical helmet and scratched the back of his head.

At that moment Sinon knew exactly who she'd been partnered with, the eyes gave it away and Mina's words only confirmed it.

"I'll do my best but ya' might need to find a new strategy, Tachibana-san." She gave a smile before walking away.

"Tachibana…Yuuto...?" Sinon whispered. Clearly loud enough for Ryuji to hear.

He flinched slightly as he heard his real name muttered by the azure haired sniper. His mind raced as he tried to figure out who this girl could be, someone who knew him obviously. He scanned his mind for an answer his answer came with her making an ever so subtle gesture, she brushed over her lips with two fingers.

"Asada Shino-san."


	7. The Night Before

**December 9****th**** 2025**

**Forgotten Woods**

**GGO**

"Asada Shino-san" His words cut into her like a dagger, it was him, Tachibana Yuuto. The man who had stole her first kiss within days of even being familiar with her.

"You'd better start explaining before I plant one right between your god damned thighs!" Sinons' voice was aggressive not even close to the soft and somewhat pleasant tone she maintained in real life. She raised her Hecate just enough so that the barrel was pointed directly at Ryuji's groin.

"I have a good reason! I swear!" His panic apparent. He certainly _did not _want to experience even the simulated pain of what Sinons' threat entailed. Ryuji began to explain his reasoning for being there, and more importantly the reason for kissing her.

"In case you die, huh?" Sinon had at this point unequipped her rifle and had her arms folded firmly across her, rather impressive, chest. _'I've had guys hit on me for worse reasons, and if he's being honest with me, he very well might die going up against Death Gun'_ Her mind rationalised.

"I guess you're in the clear, on one condition." She smirked before opening her menu.

Her finger hovered over the logout button as Ryuji gave his response. "What exactly would that be?" His head cocked to the side slightly, the forest camo helmet brushing against his bulky left shoulder pad as he did so.

"Dinner, me and you, after BoB. I'm sure you have no objections and frankly, you're not particularly repulsive to look at and you have a form of intelligence, I suppose." She gave a coy smile as she tapped the logout button and her avatar vanished in a white light.

Ryuji deemed it best to follow suit. His eyelids starting to feel heavy as he tapped the logout button.

* * *

"Sorry Shinkawa-kun but I-" Shino tried to explain for what must have been the third time.

Shinkawa and her were sat in the café they were both regulars at, the discussion had begun by Shino explaining her plan for the BoB preliminaries starting the following afternoon but had somehow ended up with Kyouji pestering her for a date.

'_Dammit, take a hint idiot'_ Her mind yelled, but Shino thought it best to not be too harsh with her rejection, she had found it easy to reject him before due to her trauma or being busy prepping for the BoB. But now Kyouji was coming on stronger than ever. Little did he know that Shino had no interest in him as a potential romantic partner.

"Asada-san if you win, you'll be the best of the best and then you'll be free to focus on other things, right?" He insisted. His kind smile was almost pitiful.

Shino was aware that a harsh rejection would break his heart and probably cost her his friendship. But she simply had no interest in him that way. To be honest she wasn't even sure she thought of Yuuto in that way, but she was a damn sight more attracted to him than she was to Kyouji.

Shino took a sip of her coffee and glanced at the clock mounted on the café's yellow wall. 18:56. She downed the golden liquid with a gulp and grabbed her bag. "I'd better be getting home; I'll talk to you about this after the Tournament okay?" She mumbled to Kyouji before darting out the door without so much as a glance back at him.

She entered her apartment and locked the door ensuring to lock it by the chain, a habit she had developed from her social isolation. She quickly made herself her usual meal of instant Ramen and a glass of whatever fruit juice was on sale that week. And sat herself in front of her Television. A set of retro Game consoles lined the stand below it. Her sizeable collection pertaining mostly of Western FPS and action games. Neatly sat atop a shelf above the television. Shino set her meal on the coffee table in the centre of the one room apartment and retrieved a game from the shelf. _Ratchet and Clank 2_ A certified classic. Shino placed the disc in her old PS2 and felt herself immerse herself in the game world. She knew this game like the back of her hand. From Planet Aranos to Damosel She could probably beat the game blindfolded, the clock ticked over to 22:36 before long and she decided she had progressed far enough. Getting to Smolg in one sitting was an impressive feat considering how slow she liked to play.

She removed her uniform and delicately folded into a washing hamper she kept at the foot of her bed. She stepped into the bathroom and wiped her light makeup off before putting her standard nightwear of an old shirt and shorts on.

She wanted to be sure she was ready for anything in the preliminaries, losing was not an option she stared at herself in the bathroom mirror for a good five minutes after brushing her teeth. She would get stronger; she would be the strongest. No matter the cost.

Shino placed her glasses on the nightstand behind her bed. Dropping a quick mail to Yuuto on her phone with a warning:

You better be ready; I will not lose.

-Sinon

She received no reply, Yuuto was invariably still upset at her insistence on participating despite his protests. She felt a little bit of satisfaction from that, despite her determination though the thought of Death Gun did weigh on her but her rationale of _'It's impossible the Amusphere is no Nervegear'_ gave her some comfort. This combined with her exhaustion from multiple days of sleep deprivation from preparation allowed her to fall quickly asleep.

* * *

Yuuto gave a slight smirk at the mail he received. _'Good, so she really is determined'_ he thought to himself. Before firing off his own mail to Rina:

Operation beginning tomorrow morning

Will give updates before and after each match.

-Tachibana Y.

He was quite aware that MMO Stream would be showcasing each match of the prelims, but he was convinced his sister would be too busy to pay it any notice. His mind wandered to ideas of how to keep Sinon safe from Death gun a string of thought that kept him awake until very early morning, by which time he discarded the idea closed his eyes. _'I'll solve this before he even goes near her.'_

* * *

**Author-chans note: New author for this one, yeah he got ill so asked me to solve it. That's kinda why this took so long. I have a life and a job to do, and y'know a long-distance BF to keep up with, all that good stuff. Anyway hope you guys enjoy this one.**

**Usual Authors note: I had surgery it sucked. I'm better now.**


	8. Prelim Prologue

**December 10th 2026**

**SBC Glocken **

**Gun Gale Online**

Ryuji checked the clock for the third time, twenty minutes past the hour. He gave a deep sigh and checked his inventory again, his P226 and M14 would be his two main weapons for the preliminary rounds. His twin G18's he had deemed 'too recognisable' to be used before the final. His eyes began to track Sinon pacing back and forth in the rotunda of the Governor's office. A rather feminine looking player persisted trying to talk to her only to be answered by a monotone "Don't follow me." Ryuji understood this player to be the cause of her pacing.

Ryuji shook his head. The black haired feminine looking player was supposed to be Kirito? The infamous Black Swordsman? Ryuji had berated him calling him an 'Idiot,' a 'half-boiled moron.' Upon finding out Kirito had tricked Sinon into helping him under the guise of being female.

Sinon finally sat herself down at the same round table Ryuji himself sat. Taking a seat next to Spiegel, opposite Ryuji. He had previously claimed to be acting as a supporter of Sinon, not taking part in the tournament himself merely observing. He had attempted to strike up conversation a few times with Ryuji after seeing him have a brief yet seemingly amicable interaction with Sinon as she entered the rotunda. Ryuji had simply ignored him.

"Sit down." Sinon murmured to Kirito. Gesturing to the space beside Ryuji.

Kirito gave a meek nod before taking the seat causing Ryuji to squeeze himself into the corner, his intention to avoid being as close to Kirito as possible, causing the dark haired player to let out a resigned sigh.

Sinon leaned forwards slightly. "Look, the preliminaries are a series of one on one battles designed to reduce the total amount of players from all 10 blocks down to 20, who will then all be entered into the final. An all out battle royale. Me and you will meet in the finals, meaning provided we both get there it doesn't matter who wins in the end. We both get our chance at winning." She glared silently at Kirito after finishing her explanation. "I won't explain further, nor will I answer more questions."

Kirito gave a meek smile. "Okay got it, thanks" He gave a second smile. Causing Ryuji to raise his eyebrows slightly.

Sinon continued, without even a glance towards Kirito. "Me and you are both Block F. And I better see you in the finals. I have one last thing to teach you."

Kirito cocked his head slightly. "One last thing?"

"The taste of the bullet that means defeat." Sinon smirked.

"Swing and a miss, Sinon-chan." Ryuji muttered as he noticed the clock hit 19:28. "By the way, since our girl there failed to mention the arena is one kilometre squared. You start within five-hundred metres of your opponent. The only penalty for losing is shame, and the fact that you probably condemned some innocents to death." Ryuji slid his gunmetal grey helmet on before giving Kirito a nod. "So no pressure, Black-swordsman."

Sinon very quickly displayed her character name to Kirito and nodded to Ryuji who did the same. Kirito nodded in acknowledgement. He understood that he probably wasn't going to have an easy time if he had to fight either of these two.

Suddenly a bright light erupted form the center of the rotunda causing all the players to cheer. Everyone stood as an announcer began to call out excitedly the beginning of the '3rd Bullet of Bullets tournament'.

"Here we go." Ryuji whispered as he saw his name flash as one of the new competitors on the large screen in the center. Along with Kirito's and several other new people. He tried to memorize them all but very quickly found he was unable to keep up. He felt a bright light envelop his body as he began to be teleported into his first match. A brief one minute timer gave him the chance to equip his selected weapons and any gadgets he would need, a few medpacs and two stun grenades. The timer ended as he finished checking his loadout.

He then stood in an open field with a few metal walls for cover face to face with his opponent still fumbling to attach a bayonet to their rifle. Ryuji pointed a finger at his opponent and with a smirk shouted. "Let me say this to start! I'm considered to be fairly strong!"

**Authors note: Alright, Im'a be honest from the start I spent nine months watching Kamen Rider. Like I had two sentences written for five-ish months straight. Stop asking to adopt this thing, its not orphaned im just lazy.**

**Editors Note: He is very lazy, its true.**

**Author-Chans note: You what, when?**

"


End file.
